521
A Touch
of Magic
ROYAL S. SCHAAF Newark,
B
EGOT
in the ventricle
mater,
of memory,
and delivered
at Jim
Belmont,
Currens’
graciously
nourished
upon the mellowing
tions of P.D. come jostling-his game
New Jersey
in the womb of occasion,”
spry figure galloping
on his twenty-fifth making
a roomful
wedding
of pia
recollec-
the bases in the anniversary;
of multi-origined
in
graduate
students feel individually at home ; chatting quietly under the trees on a summer night at Harvard, Massachusetts, with Penny and her guitar at his side;
or reminiscing
about his old patient,
Civil War General
Adelbert Ames (son-in-law of “Spoonsy” Butler), who with proper care lived well into the 1930’s. Again, on a more somber occasion, his letter to the Boston Herald telling simply and beautifully time of devoted
service
in a town in Maine
given by his father,
who practiced
of the lifemedicine
until his death at 92.
But the scene which lives most vividly for me is Christmas the White
home
the Whites
in those days of Luftwaffe
in 1943.
In addition
to their
bombing
dinner at
own two children,
of England also had As a treat for Lewis.
with them the young daughter of Sir Thomas the children, P.D. had visited the Joke Shop and was prepared with But when he asked who magic to add to the festivity of the day. would like to see water
turned
to wine, no child
seemed
impressed
with the prospect,
and he had to state that at least he would like to
himself.
the children
Perhaps
were right, for the chemical
was weak
A second trick and the water scarcely showed a trace of pallid pink. Undaunted, the likewise failed of effect, for reasons now forgotten. magician shortly about the table.
produced a package of cigarettes and offered them By unfair chance there was not a smoker in the
group ; so the devoted father had to light up himself and laughed as merrily as the rest when the cigarette suddenly exploded in his face. A magician, indeed-in the skill and zeal and human warmth that bind patient, colleague and friend alike, he truly lights up, the radiant embodiment
VOLUME
15,
APRIL
1965
of a good and remarkable
man.